Android Executive Poached by China

Xiaomi, the smartphone maker that outsells Apple in China, said it hired Google vice president Hugo Barra as part of a push to find growth opportunities outside its home market.

Barra, who helped oversee Google's Android product management, will join Xiaomi — which is called "China's Apple" - in October as head of international business development, Lei Jun, founder and chief executive officer of the Beijingbased company, said in a post on Weibo microblog. His post was confirmed by Raine Zhang, a Xiaomi spokeswoman.

The appointment signals Xiaomi's intention to take on Apple and Samsung overseas after building market share by selling handsets priced at less than a third of the iPhone 5 in China.

Lenovo, Huawei and ZTE all used the local market as a springboard to become among the largest smartphone makers in the world.

"Hugo Barra can bring his international experience on products and relationship with ecosystem partners to Xiaomi," said Nicole Peng, the China research director for Canalys. "This can be a huge step for Xiaomi if they make it right."

Xiaomi, backed by investors, including Temasek and Qiming Venture Partners, this month said it completed a round of funding that gave it a valuation of $10 billion. Lei said in June the company this year would more than double handset sales to 15 million.

In the China smartphone market, Xiaomi rose to sixth place in the quarter ending June 30 from eighth a year earlier, Canalys said on August 9. Apple was seventh.

Starting this month, Xiaomi began sales of its first device for China Mobile, the world's largest phone company with 745 million subscribers at the end of July. The handset is priced at 799 yuan. Apple has yet to offer a device through China Mobile.

Barra was a public face for some of Google's key efforts around Android, an operating system that the company provides to device makers at no cost. Barra spoke at Google events, including the annual developers conference held in San Francisco in May.

In July, he touted an updated version of Google's latest Nexus 7 tablet that uses Android software at a press event.

"We wish Hugo Barra the best," California-based Google said in an e-mailed statement. "We'll miss him at Google and we're excited that he is staying within the Android ecosystem."

According to AllThingsD, Barra's move to China comes at a time of upheaval in his personal life — but not because of it. He was involved with Google Glass marketing manager Amanda Rosenberg, who is now romantically linked with Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

Because of this office love quadrangle, Brin and his wife Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe co-founder, are reportedly heading for a split after six years of marriage.